Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Maine
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

The Piscataquis River is a major tributary to the Penobscot River with the potential to produce over 70,000 Atlantic Salmon smolts. With the completion of habitat accessibility improvements in the lower Penobscot (i.e. removal of Great Works and Veazie Dams by the Penobscot River Restoration Trust (PRRT) in 2012 and 2013), there is an important opportunity to ensuring safe, timely and effective access to the large amount of quality habitat in the upper Piscataquis River basin. There is an urgent need for targeted assessment of the movements and habitat uses of adult Atlantic Salmon and other species; the timing is critical because of targeted smolt stocking completed in 2022 and 2023 that potentially provides a source for “known origin” returning adults in 2024 and 2025 (for 2 SW adults) with homing motivation above all mainstem dams in the Piscataquis River. This work is highly collaborative with the Penobscot RIver Restoration Trust, The Nature Conservancy and the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service. In addition we will collaborate with industrial partners Brookfield Power and Kruger Industries to operate on hydropower dam facilities. This study aims to tag adult Atlantic Salmon returning to the Milford Fish Lift in spring 2024 and 2025 to evaluate upstream passage for Atlantic Salmon at the Howland and Browns Mills Dams. The study will also use acoustic telemetry to document use of cool water refugia and tributaries in the Piscataquis River. Telemetry data will be examined to assess passage effectiveness and delays at the Howland and Browns Mills Project. Timing of detections at receivers near the confluence of the Piscataquis/Penobscot Rivers will be used to calculate average delays of approaching fish, as well as overall migration times.